


Tetris-ed

by LostInQueue



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Games, HEA, Modern AU, Pandemic - Freeform, Random Acts Of Kindness, Virus, anything to leave, beating the virus, being understanding, feeling better, hospital stay, joking with each other, medical AU, patient, smuggling food, tetris - Freeform, tired hospital staff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:35:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInQueue/pseuds/LostInQueue
Summary: A story in which five unlikely individuals all happen to be experiencing flu like symptoms but none are bad enough to to move into advanced care stations, and so they are kept together like sardines for Armitage to have a little fun.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So it's been nagging me to do a pandemic inspired crack fic. Some softness is there but overall, it's meant to be cute/ silly to help me through this interesting time. I hope its silliness gets anyone that reads this happy despite all of it's inaccuracies.

“No, what I’m saying is there isn’t another room available, and now with this pandemic reaching our shores I’m expecting even greater changes here. Rooming patients won’t be just about who’s health care can be exploited. It’ll be about how many plugs we can hang and beds we can stuff into those spaces,” argued Rose, who was just starting her eighth year as a nurse at the hospital. It was known to be slower than the ER but as of this year, with these circumstances, she’s positive that notation is complete crap. 

It’s been nothing but madness for the past two months and she’s seen so many changes she’s claimed there was most definitely some bastard leading the production as if it was some poorly done horror movie. It was nonsense how many people rushed their doors the moment they announced the first deaths and shortages. While their hospital was large, it wasn’t expected to handle multiple counties within the state, and that is exactly what wound up happening. 

“That doesn’t sound safe,” Armitage complained. He covered his face shield with his hand, abandoning the third cup of coffee he was trying to order through the communal FaceTime Gwen was stationed with. The woman’s job was literally to go through the floors, dressed as they were, tallying up coffee orders for each floor and what time they could expect them to fill the order. He’d been missed twice for stupid shit like looking away right before she tried to make eye contact and now when he replied to Rose.

He wanted his fucking coffee…

Rose’s hand shot up right after, ordering something that sounded familiar to his wants, confirming with his name instead of hers. 

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said. 

“I did. Just like having to stuff these rooms. It’s just going to have to happen and you’re going to have to be on your game.”

—-

“This room smells,” someone moans in the corner.

“You can smell?” another voice sounds just next to her. 

Both most definitely male, one certainly deeper than the other but there’s a grumble to it, one she’s sure is all him, and has nothing to do with how sick they are.

“Is it the bathroom?” The other asks.

“There ain’t no bathroom in here.”

“Dude,” someone wheezes then coughs for a solid minute. “You on a catheter? No judgement here but I’m right by the bathroom,” he hacks again, “and I don’t smell it at all.”

Bickering continues through the three of them and Rey simply closes her eyes hoping to ignore them completely.

“Hey, buddy…” someone taps her foot, “Yo, bed by the wall…”

Rey squeezed her eyes shut trying to ignore them but they only continued.

“He’s dead,” someone panics, “Shit! Call the nurse!”

Rey holds her breath trying not to say a word or cough, hoping that she’d be moved out of the room despite her luck, being stuck in the corner. Her phone and the switch she’d gotten herself just a few weeks before being stuck in this damned bed. It was her room, well, her’s and that guy that was just across from her, whom she was pretty sure left.

He was an odd one. That guy would stare off into space, clearly not at her but certainly but it was as if he was a Druid of sorts, looking for some magical way to displace him from his damned hospital bed. The moment she lowered her bed to lay flat, she forgot all about the giant patient. 

How long had it been, Rey wondered, looking for the time on her console. 

Three hours. 

How’d that happen? 

Last time she looked it felt like time was going backwards. How the hell did it excel that fast? And if that time was really right, how did it explain her new bunk mates? 

All she truly knew was that they were both male, just on their voices and complaints. One certainly needed to chill, and the other, the one by the bathroom must not yet have been on a catheter. That’ll be peaceful...not, she thought. In fact, she was sure the three of them would soon move to other rooms and get out of her space… this was just an oversite… maybe a screw up… whatever it was it needed to be on with it and out of her face. 

____

“Room 321 needs you,” Rose pointed at the board, informing Armitage of his addition. 

“But my coffee,” Armitage grumbled. 

“It’s not here yet,” Rose snipped. 

“The moment I go in there it’ll be here and someone’s going to snatch it, I just know it. This whole damned floor has been fucking with my caffeine intake. I may as well start smoking again!” Armitage shouted as he made his way down the hall. 

“I’ll save it for you, princess!” Rose called after him only to get flipped off by him. “Don’t worry I’ll give it a little flavor,” she called after him.

“Do not spit your gum in my coffee! I swear to—“

“This is a catholic hospital!”

The sound of Armitage’s growl is enough for Rose to clench her teeth and hold in her cackle until he passed through 321’s door. 

—- 

“Oh thank God! Nurse!” The one guy nearly hyperventilated between his words said. “That one’s dead!”

Armitage grimaced under his mask, his eyes however, rolled in plain sight, provoking laughter from the other two. “Ms. Johnson,” he called for her, making the chatter in the room hush. “Ms. Johnson, can you hear me?”

“Depends,” she mumbled and took out her earpiece. “Do I get a new room if I don’t?”

The room stared blankly at her then Armitage spoke, “I fucking left my coffee for this?” and turned for the door.

Each one of the four stuck in the room propped themselves up, laughing far harder than they had in months. 

The moment it died down, Rey started them off looking to learn about each one of her new roommates. As it turned out, the tall sort of Druid was not one and it took texting the guy to find out what his occupation was which also earned her a pact not to share his line of work as if it would be life altering to share that he was a male model to the other two. Somehow she knew it would be wrong to put him to an auto mechanic and a serviceman who was acting like a while just before. To his credit though, this virus was unprecedented, and nerves were like live wires now, so much was on the line, so he kept it in instead.

Following his directions had given her immunities. He’d volley a thought into the room when they were teasing her about her relationship status with Mr. Coffee as if that had any roots in the matter. The nurse certainly gave her a second more to process what it was she was asking of him and would usually be sure to leave her pitcher of ice cubes closer to her bed than the rest, apologizing every once in a while about her company. 

That was odd but welcomed during these strange times. 

The man helping her deal with the rest of them had been stationed closer given the movement of yet another body into their room which landed the man right next to her. At times she thought it was intrusive to lay to one side so she found herself playing her switch for hours on one side while she knew he was awake and rolled to the other when she thought he was asleep. It was the only privacy she could give, she thought anyway. 

“You know you don’t have to do that,” he said finally after another few days and passed.

“I-“ Rey pursed. “What?”

“Fake you’re sleeping so you don’t have to see me.”

She did her best to explain but then he turned from her, giving her the saddest cold shoulder of her life.

—-

Rose gave a stern look and closed the door to 321, pinning one of them, the crier, Mr. Storm with one more suggestive glare to behave before she left. 

“What is with that room? You’d think they were fitted with bassinets!” she grumbled.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way. Can’t we just off them?” Armitage asked.

“What just let them—“

“Fend for themselves?”

“I don’t see how they’d be in any better shape. The point is getting them out of here and  _ home _ .”

Armitage blinked a few times at the suggestion, stopping only at, “getting them out of here,” and simply replied with another hand up for coffee.

“You haven’t finished that one! You’re going to kill yourself on caffeine!”

“Oh, no… I’m ordering us lunch. Finish your rounds at the same time as I do and we’ll have lunch at say, four, okay?”

“Late lunch—“

“Service isn’t the greatest and,” he waves over his hazmat attire before she agrees. 

“Four it is.”

——

“All I’m saying is that cases like 321 really shouldn't be our concern,” Armitage proposed carefully. “Think about it. Keeping them on the floor puts them at higher risk of getting worse.”

Rose put up two fingers to halt him while she chewed her meal. 

“I don't think you get the idea of what’s actually happening here. The virus isn't something that people can fake and their bodies go through it the way that they do because they’re either strong or weak. We can't just say that patients will go through a list of things and then be done. It doesn't work like that because everyone’s bodies are different, and that's just it, so whatever it is you think is going to work with this one… it’s just not.”

“But what if it does? Just hear me out,” Armitage kept going after she rolled her eyes. “Three out of five of them are only experiencing mild fevers, spiking here and there. The other two have a cough but we’re certain it has nothing to do with the precession of this, so what if we’re just amping them up to want to stay in the room?”

“Like placebos?” Rose raised her eyebrow at her friend.

“Exactly! And, what if we could help that along?”

“You cant help a fever along with this one. You heard what the doctor’s have said about our leading fever reducers. We can’t play that game and dope them up. Thats a lawsuit or five waiting to happen.”

“Oh stop,” Armitage chortled. “You’re taking it way too far,” he cleared his throat and put his hands up at his sides. “Given their set up, I think it will be far easier than drugging them.”

“Is that so?” 

“It is.”   
  
“And how do you plan on doing this?”

“With games.”

Rose put her sandwich down on her plate for a long moment unsure of what to say when she finally went for it. 

“Games…”

Armitage nodded. 

“I’m pretty sure we’re playing one as it is. What if we could get the patients like them to think they were doing better so that they could be put in a new holding unit before being discharged?”

“I think it’s extremely naive of you to think that this is going to work. Either that or the virus has seeped into your brain.”

“That’s not even how it works,” he said, lifting his drink to take a sip. 

“Oh? And you have all the answers now, Mr. Iplaygamesforscience.”

“I think I do,” Armitage smirked, “And I think I’ll call it, Tetris-ed”

\----

It’s not even a good name, Rose thinks, each room that Armitage thought would be a candidate for it now had a tetris symbol depending on how many patients were in rooms and how they were corralled in them. It all played a part in his little game. 

Armitage was out and on his rounds with a quicker pace to his step now. Rose rolled her eyes at this, expecting it to fail, but at least she didn't have to tell him when or where to go anymore. The man was on a mission and who was she to stop it from blowing up in his face? 

By the time he got to 321, they had sort of beat him to it. Tetris music from Rey’s Switch filled the room, albeit quietly, it’s just what he heard first. Then Mr. Storms complaining he was sure had nothing to do with the illness, which provided him the courage to supply them with his challenge. 

It was a matter of minutes. 

Literally minutes after he had proposed his position, the game, he wanted to play with them to get on with their lives and out of his hair, before the entire room laughed at him. 

Well…

Everyone except for Mr. Storm. 

The idiot truly believed him which in turn got everyone else thinking. 

“This is a dangerous game,” Mr. Solo said. 

\----

Rey, who had covered her face with her blanket at the thought of leaving her modge podge group of friends, could not look anywhere but at the rough bumps that weaved her blanket together. Sure she was done with being stabbed every four days. Her mattress felt as though it was deflating at every turn, despite being foam. And if she had to leave and suffer with her fever at home, then Ben needed to be near. 

They had already sort of hit it off, what with his overall sweetness despite being sick. He would leave his hand on her mattress, being that his arms were long enough to reach her so that she could feel close to him. Both Ben and Rey had bonded over eyerolls in response to Mr. Storm’s complaints and how completely calm Mr. Bacca was. He was utterly impassive and probably deaf given his lack of concern for the group of thirty somethings he’d been stuffed with. Ben though, he was different. He played games with her, followed asinine rules she made up while sharing her Switch, just to make things interesting, while she shared things she requested for herself but would request the item was given to Ben instead at the last minute. 

The first time Mr. Solo, Ben, offered her his hand, it was to lightly hold hers while he dutifully looked at the bruising in her hand. She’d been so sore that time he looked like he was going to kill someone for torturing her. It was sweet in a way, coming from her last relationship where the guy couldn't be bothered to even know she was there or what her name was from time to time. Ben was just different and all it took was the look on his face when he cradled her head in his hand that rested just so on her crappy mattress for her to agree with Armitage. 

“You’re on,” she stated. “What do ya say, Ben? Get outta here with me?”

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Beating a fever is harder than it seems. 

No matter how much she drinks or pees for that matter, Rey finds herself needing more blankets and power naps throughout the day and night. It seems to be no different for Ben who has repeatedly asked for her to be moved closer so he could reach her better. Each time they had been told that it was best to keep them separate so they could sit off the side of their beds. 

That was a game. So much of life without that catheter was a game, a fun one with him in it, she almost died to have to get up and go all the time. There were bonus points if he had to too. Ben really was a gentleman, even when he was sick unlike the other two and the silent seven footer across the way. When he could manage being up, he’d hold her hand so she could steady herself on her feet, and better still, helped her maneuver with her IV with his to the bathroom and back. She’d do her best to give him the same treatment but found he liked to lead. He liked making sure she got what she needed and she’d do all she could to make sure Ben would get the treatment he deserved, she thought to herself. 

But how?

How indeed. There really wasn’t a lot she could do for him. 

That is…until she could start ordering real food. 

The smell of real food made the room stand on its head. Every last one of them craned their necks to look for the wafting solids making an appearance in their space. To her surprise, most were willing to trade devices for sneaking solids into their liquid diets just to see if they could taste the delicious morsels. As it turned out, anything was considered one, a mushroom, her least favorite thing to eat had been craved by each of the others, even the one who said eating them made him feel like he was eating an ear.

It certainly quieted the room down to the ability to hear his nervous breath before the room erupted in ear nibbling jokes and referring to ears as shrooms instead of the wrinkly mass of cartilage that it actually is. Each of which had completely confused the nursing staff seeing them through their recovery victories. 

Eating had always been Rey’s thing but as she ordered, she watched the way Ben would really stare at the menu. It became her thing to talk about what she could get and in turn what she could also get him. Not that he’d known it though. The first time Rey ordered, it was dinner time. The phone rang and rang and by the time a cafeteria worker had picked up she had been snapped at for calling. The woman hadn’t realized her tone or that she was being absolutely awful until Rey ordered three brownies. 

“Three? Ma’am…”

Rey stopped her before she could say much more, “Yes please. You see, one is for me, and one is for the head chef who is most clearly under more stress than I am, trying to make food for all of us sick folk up here and keeping healthy themselves, and the last one is for you.”

Rey will always remember the way she gasped on the line asking why her in particular and Rey answered, “because you sound like you need a hug or someone to be there for you. This brownie is me being there for you. I can’t hug you, and we probably will never meet thanks to this damned virus, but this brownie knows things…”

The woman simply started laughing. It was a small sound at first, followed by more. She repeated, “This brownie knows things,” over and over again until she couldn’t anymore. Finally, as she came back to her senses and realized the other individuals on hold out loud to her, the woman finally added, “Thank you, Rey. You couldn’t possibly know how much I needed that brownie.”

Later that night, Rey stored the items she’d ordered that were wrapped in plastic, including the brownie and a roll with butter packets in her pillow case which everyone who had been watching cringed at. 

“I highly doubt that’s a good place to put it,” Ben said, shaking his head at her as he watched. 

Rey snorted, “The only other place I can hide it is in my bra, which is not currently attached to my body, and balancing these food items on my shelf seems like I would be calling attention to myself.”

“Touche,” he smirked back. “Though I wouldn't mind eating them off of your…” 

Groans came from the otherside of the room from the others once again making it known that they were not dead, and the virus did not disturb the use of their ears, unfortunately. 

“Fuck off,” Ben growled lowly, and if she had to guess, she’d say he was slightly embarrassed he had even brought it up. 

She’d looked him over for, Maker, the millionth time since they rolled into this room together, and couldn't stop her attraction to him from making her sound insane to herself for sharing it with the rest of the room. 

“I’d let you, If you wanted… if you meant that.. I mean.” she stumbled with her words. 

“Oh my god!” Finn moaned, pressing the call button on his bed. 

The poor man who had answered him got an earful of complaints about budding love within the room and needed to be placed elsewhere only to be shot down and hung up on with a loud, “NO!” making the group roar with laughter, and followed with the residual pain of their coughing fits.

  
  


\----

Later that night and every night since, Rey snuck over to Ben’s bed which was inches away from each other’s, honestly, she went to him sharing her bounty. Some meals hadnt been ones she could save, and for those, she fed him in front of the others right from her hand like she was feeding a starving puppy. Maker, it melted her heart. His big brown eyes followed her every movement and when she would finally offer her fork or pieces of her bacon, he’d purposely take all of it into his mouth to be able to reach his lips to her hand or skin. 

She loved the way he felt there. His warmth was unlike anything else she’d ever experienced, and love struck or not, Rey promised herself she would ride out this high. She would ride it out until she capsized, completely unaware of what had happened between them, but even then he promised her it was not the case. 

Ben could say the sweetest things. 

He melted her heart for sure; made her want to believe that this could be forever… 

But the morning came and so did the discharge papers. Rey had been seen enough to advance to home care and to continue her quarantine expectations there until she’d managed to feel like her old self again. 

Rey frowned and did her best not to cry, “Can’t he come with me? Ben? Can’t I wait until he’s ready to go?” she asked Armitage who came in to discharge her with a fist full of paperwork. 

She watched his scowl recede, a grin spreading in its wake before letting on to his little secret, “You’re all going, except for the one who had been harassing the nurses.”

“What?” Finn exclaimed, his blood pressure rose as he grumbled making his monitor spike. 

“It’s an attitude like that, that keeps you ill, buddy,” he said, making his rounds and getting the signatures required to send these patients off into their own lives again and winning his bet entirely as the whole floor seemed to realize themselves while being grouped together. 

“It just takes a little more positivity than what you’re programmed to give yourselves to help your mind conquer your battles. Think about that,” he said waving the nursing students in to pull IV needles and help the four clear out of their room efficiently. 

“Are you really leaving me here?” Finn closed his eyes and then opened them with mock seriousness. “I cough less than the rest of them. You know this. I know this… the only thing I’ve been missing out on are those brownies Rey’s been packin for those nurses…”

“Those nurses deserve what they’ve been given,” he said as a matter of factly. “Do you?” Armitage asked before handing him his discharge paperwork too. 

Silence hung in the air between the two men, a sight of which Rey and Ben had been looking forward to running from. 

“Can you see that he gets my last brownie?” she asks, now knowing full well that she’d be wheeled to the front of the hospital to be set free with her now boyfriend, Ben Solo, within moments. 

“I can, and thank you for what you sent to the nurses station. It really brightened our lives in these trying times, Rey.”

“What did you…” Ben asked, intrigued with her kindness. 

“I ordered food for them from a certified establishment to make sure they get at least one great pick me up today.” 

Ben shook his head in disbelief. 

“And this made you feel better?”

“So much better...and now, we get to spend the rest of this quarantine mess together, just like we always wanted,” Rey chuckled as he reached out to her to hold her hand with reassurance. 

She watched him nod, as it was all he could do. Happiness, pride, and other emotions flitted over his brow before settling for awe as they rolled out of their rooms and onward to a life they could share forever. 


End file.
